if i can learn to do it
you can learn to do it

ϟ

"Vera Verto!" Perry said for what felt like the hundredth time. She watched as Hedwig transformed into a pearly white chalice with yellow jewels around the top. She smiled to herself, once again admiring her work.

She had been practicing this spell for over a month and she felt she had finally mastered it. Learning the spell was their long term homework for transfiguration. She had already been given many assignments from her professors, theses tasks consisting of essays, charms, and spells to learn.

Hermione had made her a schedule for studying. Although she didn't necessarily want it, Persephone didn't object to the gift the girl so eagerly gave her. If Perry didn't have a lot of time on her hands it would probably have come in useful, but alas, the girl had so much time she didn't know what to do with it.

She had read so many books in a month and half. She never thought her mind could comprehend that much. Before coming to the library, she didn't know how much she enjoyed reading. She had learned more from the books than she had in her classes. More spells, more techniques, and a lot of valuable information from the little notes previous owners of the books had scribbled in.

"Reparifarge!" Perry said pointing her wand at the chalice that was her owl. Persephone flares her nostrils once again. Like many of her other attempts, she hadn't managed to change the chalice back into her beloved animal. Now she was left with a feathery goblet.

Clearing her throat she raised her wand, "Reparifarge!"

Again, the chalice changed only slightly, as it now had a feathered tail. Persephone ran a hand through her long hair as she imagined how angry Hedwig would be at her for not being able to change her back.

"Hey, Persephone!" said a slightly familiar voice. "Need any help?"

Persephone froze when she heard the call of her name. Her body tensed up from the voice that sounded so familiar but didn't have a face to it. Perry looked up and relief washed over her as her body relaxed.

"Oh—Er—hi, Alana," Perry said with a smile to the girl. "Um—hey—hi, Cedric."

Her eyes slid to the feathery chalice and she quickly hid her face in embarrassment. She didn't like the odd feeling it gave her when somebody witnessed her failures. With the Dursley's, well, she eventually gave up trying to do anything in front of them. Unless of course she was instructed to.

"You okay?" Cedric asked, placing his hands on the back of the chair, silently asking for permission to sit.

"Yeah I'm fine," Perry said quietly. "Er—you can sit—sit... I mean— only if you want too—"

"Thanks," he said with a smile as he set down his books. Perry looked down once again. She had been hoping he would say that they had to be somewhere also and the both of them would leave her in her struggles.

"Do you need any help," Alana asked nodding her head towards the cup. "I mean— not that I could help, but Ced's rather good with spells, charms, and all that rubbish."

"She just calls them "rubbish" 'cause she's ruddy terrible at them," Cedric whispered behind his hand to Perry.

Alana narrowed her eyes at him and opened her mouth to object, but with a second thought, her face softened and a goofy smile replaced her scowl. "I'd argue... but I did set him on fire in charms today," Alana said smiling at the memory. Perry let out a little laugh while Cedric only shook his head with a small smile on his face.

"Er—What did you need help with, Persephone," Cedric said, bringing his attention away from his best friend's failures.

Perry's face immediately flushed as she bit the inside of her lip. Shaking her hair in front of her face she muttered, "Well, I can transform the animals into a chalice perfectly, I—I just can't—I just can't transform them back."

"Okay," he said. "Show me."

Perry's eyes immediately widened out of horror. She didn't want to show them how bad she was at magic. Everyone expected so much from the girl who helped vanquish the Dark Lord, how could she show them she was terrible?

"Hey, don't worry too much," Cedric said leaning his head so that she'd look at him. "You've got years to learn plenty of magic. You're actually trying to learn more, which already says a lot about you."

"Yeah, relax a bit," Alana said while dipping her quill in ink. "If I tried like you did I'd probably be great at magic by now."

A small smile crept onto Perry's face. She hadn't felt very welcomed since the start of school. Now it was almost Halloween and that feeling hadn't left her. The feeling was something she had lived with through her Life with the Dursley's. She wasn't blood related to them, so she had been treated even worse than Harry. At least he was their blood.

This feeling of welcome that the two Hufflepuffs had provided felt exotic to the girl, almost an uncomfortable feeling. A small smile appeared on her face, a very delayed smile that one of the Hufflepuffs at the table noticed.

"Try it again," Cedric said with a smile.

Perry swallowed while straightening herself up on her seat. She raised her wand and repeated the spell, "Reparifarge!"

And magically, the cup did absolutely nothing. Zero change. Zip. Perry slumped back in her chair, ducking her head down as her face blushed madly.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Cedric said. "Like, I said, you'll pick up on it. Just try relaxing a bit. You're far too tense."

Perry nodded, reassuring herself that it was possible for her to relax. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Opening her eyes she sat up straight and raised her hand only a few mere inches before Cedric cut her off.

"Relax, Persephone," he said with a chuckle. "No more sitting up straight and holding your arm out straight. Just be natural."

So she did just that. She didn't sit up straight this time, and she raised her hand in a lazy fashion. She didn't announce the spell, but instead let it roll off her tongue.

"Reparifarge!" she said clearly. Her eyes dilated as she watched the chalice morph into her beautiful snowy owl. She went to stroke the pristine white of the owl but before she could make contact with her pure feathers, Hedwig had leant foreword to bite her finger.

"Ow!" She exclaimed as a dribble of blood came from her finger. Hedwig didn't look happy in the slightest. She flew over to the other side of the circular table with a scowl. Alana ran her fingers through the white feathers of the owl that landed next to her.

"Good job, Perry!" Cedric exclaimed at the same time Alana let out a high pitched squeal. Needless to say everyone in the library shushed her and Madam Pince came over and gave her a warning.

"Sorry, Madam Pince," she said with a light blush. Madam Pince nodded at the girl as she trudged back over to her desk.

"Persephone—"

"You guys can call me Perry," the small blonde girl said. "I prefer it."

"Okay then, Perry," Alana said with the same excitement in her voice. "You're owl is so adorable. And she's so gorgeous—"

Alana went on to rant about Hedwig for the next hour while Perry practiced her spells with Cedric's help. At the end of their little study session, Cedric had brought up the topic of Quidditch (as he had panicked that he had forgotten about practice). Perry felt ashamed for not knowing what it was the two older students were so enthusiastically discussing.

"So, Perry, rumor has it Potter's the new Gryffindor seeker," Alana inquired with a raised eyebrow. "Know anything 'bout that?"

"I—er—I don't— I don't even really— erm— know anything about— that sport," Perry stuttered, desperately hopping that whatever they were talking about was indeed a sport.

"What!—" Cedric exclaimed before getting shushed by the entire library. He was lucky that Madam Pince had her hands full with reprimanding a fourth year Gryffindor for writing in one of the library book.

"What!" he whisper shouted. "You don't know what quidditch is?" Then he got up from his seat and raced down one of the library aisles.

Perry's fave immediately contorted into one if worry and embarrassment. She had finally found students in this school who weren't mean to her or didn't stare at her like she the star on top of a Christmas Tree. Why did she have to say that? Why didn't she just play along as if she knew what they were going on about?

"Is he mad?" Perry asked Alana.

Alana looked up from the essay she was writing with a smile. She could see the girl overthinking things in her head the moment she raised her head. She didn't quite understand why, but the look on the girls face instantly caused her heart to pain. The girl's constant stuttering had already caused her to believe that she must have some sort of anxiety from this new found attention.

"No, I don't think so," she said smiling at the girl. "To think of it, I've really never seen Cedric all that mad before. Not even what I lit him on fire today. Or that time I blew off his eyebrows when I accidentally put the wrong powder in our caldron. Even that time last year when I dropped our cage of Billywig's and they ended up stinging him multiple times. He was sent to the hospital wing and the closest he got to getting mad was calling me an insufferable clumsy idiot." Perry felt very relived from her stories. "Even then he still said it with a smile."

"But why'd he get up then?" Perry mumbled, sinking back into the hole in her mind.

"I don't know," Alana said placing her essay on the table. "I wouldn't worry about it though."

"But—"

"There he is," Alana said nodding towards the boy approaching. He had a big book in his hands that Perry furrowed her eyebrows at.

He sat down in the chair he had previously occupied accompanied by a wide smile and a large book that read Quidditch Through the Ages.

"This is the history of Quidditch from the very first game that was played in Queerditch Marsh, from which the game gets his name—"

Perry could barely keep up with everything he was saying. From flying rocks that eventually came to be what is called a "Bludger" to the poor Golden Snidget that was first used to end the game as well as give a reward to the person whom caught it.

Before she knew it, it was time for dinner. Cedric checked out the book for her to look through, for he had noticed how much she enjoyed looking at the photos on the table. They made their way down to the Great Hall where Cedric waved goodbye to the petite first year and Alana ruffled her long blonde hair.

They made their way over to the Hufflepuff table to meet their friends who immediately began talking to them. She noticed a few of their friends look over to her with smiles and she gave a little wave to them, as she was sure she now knew what they were talking about.

Perry looked around the hall to spot one of her own friends. She looked over to the Slytherin table where the first years she could have been friends with were seated, eating their dinner and cackling. She tore her eyes away from her silver and green classmates and searched the table of gold and red. When her eyes landed on the bushy hair of Hermione Granger she smiled as bright as the stars. She couldn't wait to tell her what she had learned today.